Oink!

by Cameron Slater on March 11, 2010 at 3:52pm

The one on the right dummy.Hemi Matenga is yet another trougher. One mission of this blog is to out those who will steal taxpayer and ratepayer money as if it was just lying in the trough for them to sup on.

Porirua city councillor trougher Hemi Matenga has not attended any council meetings or workshops thus far in 2010, despite saying in December he was “committed” to serving his community and regaining the people’s confidence.

Mr Matenga was missing from the February committee and full council meetings, a recent Treaty Partnership Group meeting and a hui with Ngati Toa.

Councillor Euon Murrell, who put a notice of motion to request Mr Matenga’s resignation in December, is unhappy about ratepayers’ money being paid to the absent Eastern Ward representative. A councillor earns $26,278 a year, so Mr Murrell estimates Mr Matenga has received about $6000 during the past three months but hadn’t earned it.

“It just reinforces my view that he should have taken heed of the vote [11-3 in favour of him resigning] and done the decent thing. By not showing up he is showing contempt for the process. I would have thought he should have at least come to the hui and contributed, but he doesn’t seem to be interested. No-one’s seen him at all.”

Allegations of theft were levelled at Mr Matenga in October after money went missing from his former employer Bodyworks. Police did not lay charges after being satisfied he did not intend to steal, but said Mr Matenga complicated matters by lying about what had happened to the money.

Oh right! the Father Ted defence, the money was just resting in the account. Lucky the cops are stupid in Porirua eh?

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.